gray sandstone cemented together with mud.  The work had been performed by slaves ignorant of building, for the stones were not often placed so as to cover the seams below.  Hence you frequently find the joinings forming one seam from the top to the bottom.  Much mortar or clay had been used to cover defects, and now trees of the fig family grow upon the walls, and clasp them with their roots.  When the clay is moistened, masses of the walls come down by wholesale.  Some of the rafters and beams had fallen in, but were entire, and there were some trees in the middle of the houses as large as a man’s body.  On the opposite or south bank of the Zambesi we saw the remains of a wall on a height which was probably a fort, and the church stood at a central point, formed by the right bank of the Loangwa and the left of the Zambesi.

The situation of Zumbo was admirably well chosen as a site for commerce.  Looking backward we see a mass of high, dark mountains, covered with trees; behind us rises the fine high hill Mazanzwe, which stretches away northward along the left bank of the Loangwa; to the S.E. lies an open country, with a small round hill in the distance called Tofulo.  The merchants, as they sat beneath the verandahs in front of their houses, had a magnificent view of the two rivers at their confluence; of their church at the angle; and of all the gardens which they had on both sides of the rivers.  In these they cultivated wheat without irrigation, and, as the Portuguese assert, of a grain twice the size of that at Tete.  From the guides we learned that the inhabitants had not imbibed much idea of Christianity, for they used the same term for the church bell which they did for a diviner’s drum.  From this point the merchants had water communication in three directions beyond, namely, from the Loangwa to the N.N.W., by the Kafue to the W., and by the Zambesi to the S.W.  Their attention, however, was chiefly attracted to the N. or Londa; and the principal articles of trade were ivory and slaves.  Private enterprise was always restrained, for the colonies of the Portuguese being strictly military, and the pay of the commandants being very small, the officers have always been obliged to engage in trade; and had they not employed their power to draw the trade to themselves by preventing private traders from making bargains beyond the villages, and only at regulated prices, they would have had no trade, as they themselves were obliged to remain always at their posts.

Several expeditions went to the north as far as to Cazembe, and Dr. Lacerda, himself commandant of Tete, went to that chief’s residence.  Unfortunately, he was cut off while there, and his papers, taken possession of by a Jesuit who accompanied him, were lost to the world.  This Jesuit probably intended to act fairly and have them published; but soon after his return he was called away by death himself, and the papers were lost sight of.  Dr. Lacerda had a strong desire to open up communication with Angola,